The Case for Keisler:
Over at Bench Memos, Ed Whelan asks why Peter Keisler's DC Circuit nomination is being blocked. Presumably the answer is that it's a political process, and that's how the politics are working out right now. But whatever the reason, I share Ed's dismay about the situation. I don't know Keisler well, but everyone I have spoken with on both sides of the aisle speaks extremely highly of him. Of all the pending Bush nominations, Keisler's is the one that I would most like to see go through.

It is time to stop playing games with judicial nominees. As senators cross swords and point fingers, seats remain empty, sitting judges get swamped, and cases drag on. Those who pay the highest price are the plaintiffs, defendants, crime victims and businesses relying on the courts to resolve disputes and dispense justice.

President Bush deserves blame for not naming nominees sooner and for ignoring the advice of home-state senators. But that does not relieve senators of their duty to evaluate those who have been nominated. The Senate last week confirmed one Court of Appeals nominee and four U.S. District Court nominees; that should be only the beginning. In the past two years, the Senate has confirmed seven nominees to the Court of Appeals; 16 such nominees were confirmed during President Bill Clinton's final two years in office. It appears unlikely that Democratic senators will match that number, but they should at least give every current nominee an up-or-down vote and expeditiously process the nominees to the U.S. Court of Appeals for the 4th Circuit, where five of the court's 15 seats are vacant. Many in the current batch of national nominees no doubt warrant confirmation; we single out two particularly worthy ones.

The nominees the Post considers to be "particularly worthy" of confirmation are Peter Keisler and Rod Rosenstein, a sentiment shared by more than one contributor to the VC.